- Transfer 1–1.5 mL of the cell suspension to a microcentrifuge
tube. - Pellet the cells by centrifugation at 200gfor 5 min at 4C.
- Aspirate the media and gently resuspend the cell pellet in 1 mL
of 1PBS. - Count cells.
- Pellet the appropriate number of cells for microporation at
400 gfor 5 min at 4C. 30,000 HT1080 cells are used for
each microporation (seeNote 6). - Aspirate the PBS and resuspend the cell pellet in resuspension
buffer R at 30,000 cells per 10μL. - Add 1μL of RBMBs per 10μL of cells such that the final
concentration of RBMB is between 0 and 5μM and pipette
gently to mix (seeNotes 7and 8 ). - Microporate 10 μL of the cell suspension (approximately
30,000 cells) with 2 pulses for 25 ms at 950 V (seeNote 9). - Following microporation, transfer microporated cells to a micro-
centrifuge tube prefilled with 1.5 mL of cell culture media. - Pellet the cells at 400gfor 5 min at 4C.
- Aspirate the media, being careful not to disturb the cell pellet.
Add 1.5 mL of cell culture media to resuspend the pellet. - Repeatsteps 16– 17 another two times (seeNotes 10and 11 ).
- After the last wash, resuspend the cells in 250μL of cell culture
media. - Seed the cells in one well of an 8-well chambered cover glass
until the samples are ready for imaging.
3.3 Single-Molecule
Fluorescence In Situ
Hybridization
- Carefully pipette out the media from each seeded well of the 8-
well chambered cover glass. - Gently wash the cells thrice with 250μL1PBS.
- After carefully pipetting out the PBS, in each well gently add
250 μL of 4% PFA prewarmed at 37C. - Incubate the cells in 4% PFA for 10 min at room temperature.
- After removing PFA, add 300μL1PBS to each well. Incu-
bate the sample in 1PBS for about 5 min. Carefully pipette
out the 1PBS and repeat this step once more. - After removing 1PBS, add 400μL of 70% ethanol.
- Close the lid and wrap the chambered cover glass with Parafilm
to minimize evaporation. - Store the chamber, protected from light, at 4C for at least
16 h. - Carefully pipette out the 70% ethanol.
236 Yantao Yang et al.